1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image processing apparatus, an image reading apparatus and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-75871 discloses a color copying apparatus in which if an external computer can only handle compression data in a standard mode, compression data in an original mode that is internally used in the color copying apparatus is converted into the compression data in the standard mode and the converted compression data with compression parameters are supplied to the external computer.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-168092 discloses a technology in which if input image data can not be compressed to aimed quantity of the data by means of a variable length reversible compression process, then the input image data is compressed by means of a variable length irreversible compression process.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-216349 discloses a technology for storing data in a memory in which if a quantity of compressed document codes exceeds a predetermined value when document data is compressed by means of a variable length reversible compression process and then the compressed document codes are stored in a memory, then the document data is rasterized again with a resolution that is normally used to print document data, and the rasterized data is divided into a certain size of the data and the divided data is compressed by means of the variable length irreversible compression process, and the compressed data is stored in the memory.
According to the technology described in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-75871, it is possible to output the compressed data in the standard mode by converting the compression data in the original mode into the compression data in the standard mode even if the color copying apparatus internally handles the compression data in the original mode. Therefore, it is possible to view images stored in the color copying apparatus on a display of the external computer.
However, such technology has a disadvantage in that it is not possible to easily perform the process that converts the compression data in the original mode into the compressed data in the standard mode by means of a simple construction and a simple process.